What Color Are Castles in the Air?
by LZClotho
Summary: Toddler!Henry has a problem and Mommy!Regina comes to help. A Regal Believer fic


**summary:** Toddler!Henry has a problem and Mommy!Regina comes to help. _A Regal Believer toddler!Henry fic_

 **What color are castles in the air?**

Henry's playroom – she'd designated a separate room from his nursery when he'd started climbing out of his crib and playing on the floor with his toys at all hours of the night – boasted brightly colored shelves with cubbies for each toy or game. She kept his storybooks, including his favorite at the moment, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, where he could reach them, neatly shelved in a cubby at one end by the window, bookended by a silly face clock statuary. A rocking chair with green cushions sat with its back to the south-facing window she could read comfortably to him in natural light most of the day.

The bottom shelf held his farm animals set and his town set of buildings and figures, and building blocks stenciled with animals, numbers, and ABC's in the primary three colors: red, blue, and yellow.

Now almost three years old, he'd been sorting blocks by color for a while. She had begun to wonder when the other markings would interest him.

It was a cool afternoon and she was opening the house to catch the spring breeze, when screams brought her running back to the playroom.

Regina was certain that her baby boy's screams meant he was being tortured. Her heart pounding hard in her chest she left his nursery and crossed the hall to his playroom.

The door banging on the inside wall startled Henry to silence. His face turned to the sound to find her standing there. Tears had soaked his cheeks and the collar of his shirt beneath his jumper. He held a block in his hand, but nothing seemed wrong. She saw no blood, only piles of blocks spread around his outstretched legs.

Putting her hand to her throat to consciously slow her heart rate before she spoke, Regina asked, "Henry, what happened?" She crouched down to be more at eye level with him.

Henry sniffled to breathe around the snot coming out of his nose and held the block out toward her. "Bwock bad." She reached up to the top of the shelves where she kept tissues and wiped his nose. "Bwock bad," he said again.

Her brow furrow in confusion, tucking her hand around his on the wooden block – she'd gotten wood because the parental columns in the magazines said she should. "It's more natural than plastic," they'd said. Regina wanted Henry to have as much appreciation for nature as possible, so she'd bought wooden blocks. She looked at the fingers of his other hand and the pants of his corduroys for signs that the block had caused some sort of damage.

Finding nothing evident, she asked, "How was the block bad?"

"Duzn' fits," he said.

She nodded. "Doesn't fit where?"

"Inna piles."

She nodded. "Okay, show me."

Henry turned the block until a pair of blue birds was visible. "Boo."

She smiled at that. "Yes."

He started to put it down on a pile of blocks she could see had blue images showing on the top side of the blocks. But then he stopped.

"Not boo."

"It is blue," she replied.

"Not bwoo," he insisted.

"What color is it then?" she asked, not sure what else to do.

"Wed."

"It's red?"

He turned the block around and showed her the red A painted on another face of the block. "Wed," he informed her.

"That is correct. That's a red A." She sighed. "Is that why the block is bad?" she asked.

"Bwocks can' be bowf."

"Yes they can." She took the block from him gently. "It has six sides." She counted aloud to him as she turned and showed him each side, identifying the colors and letters and numbers as she did. "one red A, two blue birds, a yellow three, four red dots, a blue five, and a yellow number six."

"How?"

"How do you want to sort them?"

"Red, Bwoo, Yewoh." He pointed to his three piles.

"Then chose which way you want it to match."

A frown furrowed his brow. "Chooz."

"You get to decide. Do you want this pile to be bigger than the others?" She asked, pointing to the blue pile he had obviously been working on. "Then you decide to put the blue sides together."

"No bigger. Share."

Regina smiled. "All right, share. Which pile is small?"

He pointed to the yellow pile. "Dis pie."

"The yellow pile is smallest? How do you know?"

"Big!" He held his hands out wide. "Smaw!" He held his hands in close.

"We can count too, and figure out which is smallest." She held up the blocks he'd set in the yellow pile one at a time, stacking them up on top of each other with yellow sides facing him, making a tower. "One, two, three, four."

She watched him reach toward a middle block of the tower. "Yewoh." His poke was hard enough to topple the tower. His face fell. "It faw."

"Yes, it fell. But that's all right."

"Not aw saym." He picked up one that now had a blue C showing on the top.

"True. What shall we do?"

"Make aw saym!" He started turning the blocks around in his hands until each had a blue side showing up as he stacked them up making a wall. When he was done he picked up blocks from the blue pile, including the blue birds from the first block, and added them to the wall.

Regina marveled at the concentration, and the dedication, as he moved on to the red pile, turning each block over and over in his hands like some magical mystery of the universe had been unlocked. She kissed his head as he continued to build. "Henry?"

He looked up from his work. "I wokin."

"Yes, you are working very hard. Are you hungry for lunch?"

"Wunch."

"Yes, it's lunch time. What would you like to eat?"

"Cheez!"

"Macaroni and cheese?" She thought she had some leftovers from the night before.

"Makawon cheez!" He clapped together two of the blocks in his hands and Regina held out her hand, standing up.

"Then that's what my little prince shall have."

Henry tossed the blocks down, took her hand and pulled himself against her counterpoint to stand up. They went to the top of the stairs; she removed the baby gate and helped him carefully navigate the steps. On the first floor, he let go of her hand and ran ahead of her into the kitchen.

"Wunch cheez!" he yelled.

He hung onto her pantleg the entire time she moved around the kitchen, finding the leftover meal in the refrigerator and then warming it in the microwave, getting him a bowl, a spoon, and setting it all on the table. She tested the food's warmth by taking a quick bite herself.

He clambered into his booster seat and turned himself around. He stuffed his mouth with a spoonful of the food and grinned broadly around it. She winced as he showed his food. But she melted when he spoke, "Peez tank ew Mommy!"

"You're welcome, my little prince."

###


End file.
